THE DEATH OF ARCHELAOS OF MACEDON, 399 BC
Archelaos was King of the Macedonians from 413 BC until his death in 399 BC. Presented here are conflicting explanations of the latter event, though pederasty is at the heart of all of them.
Aristotle, Politics V 8 xi-xiv (1311b)
The philosopher Aristotle seems to have written Politics soon after 336 BC. The following comes from a chapter devoted to “monarchy: the causes that destroy it and the natural means of its preservation.” The translation is by H. Rackham for the Loeb Classical Library volume 264 published by the Harvard University Press in 1932.
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And many risings have also occurred because of shameful personal indignities committed by certain monarchs. One instance is the attack of Krataias on Archelaos; for he was always resentful of the association, so that even a smaller excuse became sufficient, or perhaps it was because he did not give him the hand of one of his daughters after agreeing to do so, but gave the elder to the king of Elimeia when hard pressed in a war against Sirras and Arrabaios, and the younger to his son Amyntas, thinking that thus Amyntas would be least likely to quarrel with his son by Kleopatra;[1] but at all events Krataias’s estrangement was primarily caused by resentment because of sexual favours.[2] And Hellanokrates of Larisa also joined in the attack for the same reason; for, despite having enjoyed the prime of his youth[3], Archelaos would not restore him to his home although he had promised to do so, he thought that the motive of the familiarity that had taken place had been insolence and not passionate desire. […] Also Dekamnichos took a leading part in the attack upon Archelaos, being the first to stir on the attackers; and the cause of his anger was that he had handed him over to Euripides the poet[4] to flog, Euripides being angry because he had made a remark about his breath smelling. |
[xi] πολλαὶ δ᾿ ἐπιθέσεις γεγένηνται καὶ διὰ τὸ εἰς τὸ σῶμα αἰσχύνεσθαι τῶν μονάρχων τινάς· οἷον καὶ ἡ Κραταίου εἰς Ἀρχέλαον· ἀεὶ γὰρ βαρέως εἶχε πρὸς τὴν ὁμιλίαν, ὥστε ἱκανὴ καὶ ἐλάττων ἐγένετο πρόφασις, ἢ διότι τῶν θυγατέρων οὐδεμίαν ἔδωκεν ὁμολογήσας αὐτῷ, ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν προτέραν κατεχόμενος ὑπὸ πολέμου πρὸς Σίρραν καὶ Ἀρράβαιον ἔδωκε τῷ βασιλεῖ τῷ τῆς Ἐλιμείας, τὴν δὲ νεωτέραν τῷ υἱεῖ Ἀμύντᾳ οἰόμενος οὕτως ἂν ἐκεῖνον ἥκιστα διαφέρεσθαι καὶ τὸν ἐκ τῆς Κλεοπάτρας· ἀλλὰ τῆς γε ἀλλοτριότητος ὑπῆρχεν ἀρχὴ τὸ βαρέως φέρειν πρὸς τὴν ἀφροδισιαστικὴν χάριν. [xii] συνεπέθετο δὲ καὶ Ἑλλανοκράτης ὁ Λαρισαῖος διὰ τὴν αὐτὴν αἰτίαν· ὡς γὰρ χρώμενος αὐτοῦ τῇ ἡλικίᾳ οὐ κατῆγεν ὑποσχόμενος, δι᾿ ὕβριν καὶ οὐ δι᾿ ἐρωτικὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ᾤετ᾿ εἶναι τὴν γεγενημένην ὁμιλίαν. […] [xiii] καὶ τῆς Ἀρχελάου δ᾿ ἐπιθέσεως Δεκάμνιχος ἡγεμὼν ἐγένετο, παροξύνων τοὺς ἐπιθεμένους πρῶτος· αἴτιον δὲ τῆς ὀργῆς ὅτι αὐτὸν ἐξέδωκε μαστιγῶσαι Εὐριπίδῃ τῷ ποιητῇ· [xiv] ὁ δ᾿ Εὐριπίδης ἐχαλέπαινεν εἰπόντος τι αὐτοῦ εἰς δυσωδίαν τοῦ στόματος. |
Pseudo-Plato, Alkibiades II 141d-e
Alkibiades II Ἀλκιβιάδης βʹ is the second of two dialogues entitled Alkibiades attributed to the great Athenian philosopher Plato (ca. 426-348/7 BC) by the ancients, but which most moderns think was written by someone else in the 3rd or 2nd century BC. In the extract which follows, the Athenian philosopher Sokrates is supposedly speaking to his sometime beloved of the title. The translation is by W. R. M. Lamb for the Loeb Classical Library volume 201, published by the Harvard University Press in 1927. His Latinisation of Archelaos has been undone.
| And I expect you are not unacquainted with certain events “of a day or two ago,”[5] when Archelaos, the tyrant[6] of Macedonia, was slain by his loved boy[7], who was as much in love with the monarchy as Archelaos was with him, and who killed his lover with the expectation of being not only the monarch, but also a happy man: but after holding the tyranny[8] for three or four days he was plotted against by others in his turn, and perished. | [d] οἶμαι δέ σε οὐκ ἀνήκοον εἶναι ἔνιά γε χθιζά τε καὶ πρωϊζὰ γεγενημένα, ὅτε Ἀρχέλαον τὸν Μακεδόνων τύραννον τὰ παιδικά, ἐρασθέντα τῆς τυραννίδος οὐθὲν ἧττον ἤπερ ἐκεῖνος τῶν παιδικῶν, ἀπέκτεινε τὸν ἐραστὴν ὡς τύραννός τε καὶ εὐδαίμων ἀνὴρ ἐσόμενος· [e] κατασχὼν δὲ τρεῖς ἢ τέτταρας ἡμέρας τὴν τυραννίδα πάλιν αὐτὸς ἐπιβουλευθεὶς ὑφ᾿ ἑτέρων τινῶν ἐτελεύτησεν. |
Diodoros of Sicily, The Library of History XIV 37 vi
Diodoros of Agyrion in Sicily wrote his history of the world known to him between 60 and 30 BC. The translation is is by C. H. Oldfather for the Loeb Classical Library volume 399 published by the Harvard University Press in 1954. His Latinisation of personal names has been undone.
| In Macedonia King Archelaos was unintentionally struck while hunting by Krateros, his beloved[9], and met his end, after a reign of seven years. He was succeeded on the throne by Orestes, who was still a boy | κατὰ δὲ τὴν Μακεδονίαν Ἀρχέλαος ὁ βασιλεὺς ἔν τινι κυνηγίῳ πληγεὶς ἀκουσίως ὑπὸ Κρατεροῦ τοῦ ἐρωμένου τὸν βίον μετήλλαξε, βασιλεύσας ἔτη ἑπτά· τὴν δ᾿ ἀρχὴν διεδέξατο Ὀρέστης παῖς ὤν, |
Plutarch, Dialogue on Love 23 (Moralia 768f)
Dialogue on Love Ἐρωτικός was one of the Greek historian Plutarch’s essays in his eclectic Moralia, written around AD 100. The translation is by William W. Goodwin in Plutarch’s Morals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, vol. IV, 1874. His Latinisation of personal names has been undone.
| And as for those who, not being by nature lewd and wicked, were circumvented and forced to prostitute themselves, there are no men whom these always look upon with greater suspicion and more perfect hatred than those that deluded and flattered them into so vile an act, and they bitterly revenge themselves when they find an opportunity. For Krateas killed Archelaos, who had rid him in his youth[10]; | ὅσοι δὲ μὴ κακοὶ πεφυκότες ἐξηπατήθησαν ἢ κατεβιάσθησαν Fἐνδοῦναι καὶ παρασχεῖν ἑαυτούς, οὐδένα μᾶλλον ἀνθρώπων ἢ τοὺς διαθέντας ὑφορώμενοι καὶ μισοῦντες διατελοῦσι καὶ πικρῶς ἀμύνονται καιροῦ παραδόντος· Ἀρχέλαόν τε γὰρ ἀπέκτεινε Κρατέας ἐρώμενος γεγονώς, |
Aelian, Historical Miscellany VIII 9
Claudius Aelianus, a Roman writer in Greek, wrote his Historical Mscellany Ποικίλη ἱστορία in the early 3rd entury AD. The translation is by Nigel G. Wilson for the Loeb Classical Library volume 486, published by the Harvard University Press, 1997.. His Latinisation of Greek names has been undone.
| Archelaos the tyrant of Macedon—for that is what Plato calls him, not king—was killed by his favourite boy Krateuas, who fell in love with tyranny with the same intensity of feeling that Archelaos displayed to him as his favourite. Krateuas killed Archelaos on the assumption that he would become tyrant and enjoy great good fortune. But after three or four days in power the adolescent[11] was in turn the victim of a plot and died at the hands of others. The most appropriate comment on this Macedonian episode would be “while preparing to hurt another man he dealt himself a blow to the liver.”[12] They say that Archelaos had failed to honour a promise to let him marry one of his daughters; when Archelaos married the girl off to another man, Krateuas was enraged and killed him. | Ἀρχέλαον τὸν Μακεδόνων τύραννον (οὕτω γὰρ καὶ Πλάτων αὐτὸν ὀνομάζει, καὶ οὐ βασιλέα) τὰ παιδικὰ αὐτοῦ Κρατεύας ἐρασθεὶς τῆς τυραννίδος οὐδὲν ἧττον ἤπερ ἐκεῖνος τῶν παιδικῶν ἠράσθη, ἀπέκτεινε τὸν ἐραστήν [ὁ Κρατεύας Ἀρχέλαον], ὡς τύραννός τε καὶ εὐδαίμων ἀνὴρ ἐσόμενος. τρεῖς δὲ ἢ τέτταρας ἡμέρας τὴν τυραννίδα κατασχὸν τὸ μειράκιον, πάλιν αὐτὸς ἐπιβουλευθεὶς ὑφ᾿ ἑτέρων ἐτελεύτησεν. εἴη δ᾿ ἄν πρεπωδέστατον ἐπειπεῖν τῷδε τῷ Μακεδονικῷ δράματι τὸ ἔπος ἐκεῖνο· Ὅτι διεψεύσατο αὐτῷ φασιν Ἀρχέλαος τῶν θυγατέρων μίαν δώσειν· ὅτε δὴ ἄλλῳ συνῴκισε τὴν παῖδα, ὑπεραγανακτήσας διέφθειρε τὸν Ἀρχέλαον. |
Resolution of the discrepancies
Of these accounts, that of the pseudo-Platonic dialogue is easy to dismiss. Its untrustworthiness is obvious from Alkibiades, to whom Sokrates supposedly mentions the killing of Archelaos, having died well before the latter. Moreover, “the suggestion that Crateuas occupied the throne is obviously absurd.”[13] Aelian’s very much later account is explicitly based on that of his predecessors. If it contributes anything, it is that Krataias was still a meirakion (youth aged roughly over fourteen and under twenty-one) when he killed the King.[14] Plutarch’s also-late Dialogue on Love contributes nothing.
Aristotle’s account is far more trustworthy than that of Diodoros because he was writing many times closer to the events depicted both chronologically (the assassination occurring only fifteen years before his birth) and geographically: he was born on the edge of Macedon and spent several years at its royal court tutoring Alexander the Great, which would have given him deep personal familiarity with Macedonian traditions. Diodoros lived three centuries later in faraway Sicily. One may also note that Diodoros’s account here is relatively superficial (where Aristotle’s is rich in unexplained details) and demonstrably untrustworthy since he says Archelaos had been King for seven years when in fact he had been for about fourteen (413-399 BC). His claim that the killing of Archelaos was unintentional could have been the verdict of those charged with trying Krataias for the regicide. In any case, once what is contradicted by Aristotle is removed from Diodoros’s account, all left of it is the information that Archelaos was killed while hunting. This is entirely credible, hunting being an important activity of Macedonian Kings in which they were accompanied by their paides basilikon (King’s Boys) and hetairoi (companions), all drawn from the powerful nobility. It also afforded unusual opportunities for an apparently accidental death.
Comment
Several Macedonian Kings had known boy loves; there is no reason for supposing almost all of them did not all have them. Quite apart from matters of love or lust, the excerpt from Aristotle illuminates the possible strategic advantages for a King in forging such bonds with his young nobles. His opportunity for acquiring them was considerable, since at the age of about thirteen noble boys became King’s Boys, pages performing personal service to them.[15] A boy who had been the King’s beloved would naturally be a prime candidate to become one of his companions on growing up (if that is what these regicides had become, rather than still being King’s Boys), besides receiving other marks of royal favour. In this case, the two (perhaps only former) loved boys were clearly disappointed in their ambitions and felt cheated. The case is similar in some respects to the assassination two generations later of another Macedonian King, Philip II, by a former eromenos nursing an old grievance that he had not been treated as he deserved.
[1] Elimeia and Lynkestis (which Arrabaios, father-in-law of Sirras, ruled) were kingdoms in upper Macedonia. Archelaos’s son by Kleopatra was presumably the boy Orestes who succeeded him, while Amyntas, who might have been a threat to Orestes, was his son by someone else and perhaps just a bastard. It is hardly surprising that Archelaos allowed these vital strategic considerations to trump his promise to his eromenos.
[2] The translator’s “love affair” has been replaced by “sexual favours” as a much more accurate translation of ἀφροδισιαστικὴν χάριν.
[3] The translator’s “while enjoying his favours” has been replaced by “despite having enjoyed the prime of his youth” as a much more accurate translation of χρώμενος αὐτοῦ τῇ ἡλικίᾳ.
[4] The great Athenian tragedian Euripides “went to reside at [Archelaos’s] court 408 B.C. and died there 406 B.C. at the age of 75” [Translator’s footnote d]. Around eight years had thus elapsed since Archelaos alienated Dekamnichos.
[5] Quoted from Homer, Il. ii. 303. [Translator’s footnote].
[6] As Aelian was to point out in the extract to follow, Plato used the word τυραννίδα for Archelaos’s rule, so it is inexcusable for the translator to use the word “monarch”, quite different in its connotations, and duly replaced here by “tyrant”.
[7] “Favourite”, the translator’s unsatisfactory euphemism for παιδικά, has been replaced by “loved boy”.
[8] As Aelian was to point out in the extract to follow, Plato used the word τύραννον for Archelaos, so it is inexcusable for the translator to use the word “monarchy”, quite different in its connotations and duly replaced here by “tyranny”.
[9] The translator’s “whom he loved” has been replaced by “his beloved”, as a more accurate translation of τοῦ ἐρωμένου, which also makes the erotic character of his love clearer.
[10] Goodwin’s translation of ἐρώμενος γεγονώς as “who had rid him in his youth” has been replaced by the more accurate “whose beloved he had become.”
[11] The translator’s “young man” has been replaced by “adolescent” as a more accurate translation of μειράκιον, a word used of males aged fourteen to twenty.
[12] The verse is from Callimachus, Aetia I, fr. 2, line 5. Aelian does not often cite Hellenistic authors. [Translator’s footnote].
[13] N. G. L. Hammond, the pre-eminent modern historian of Macedon in his A History of Macedonia 550-336 B.C. (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1979), p. 168. He does not give a reason, but presumably it comes down to Krataias not being a member of the royal house, as all other known Kings of Macedon had been, and his lack of any obvious source of power to get himself recognised as King.
[14] William Greenwalt, in his article “The Assassination of Archelaus and the Significance of the Macedonian Royal Hunt” in Karanos. Bulletin of Ancient Macedonian Studies issue 2, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2019, pp. 11-17, simply assumes that Krataias and Hellanokrates were hetairoi (companions) and former beloveds of the King when they killed him. That may have been so, but if Aelian is right in his assumption that Krataias was still a meirakion, they is no reason why he could not realistically have still been the King’s beloved.
[15] Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander IV 13 i.
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